Repost: Health IT Ten Commandments (1970) v. Health IT Truisms (2012)

I believe this Oct. 2012 post bears repeating, especially in view of the recent ECRI Deep Dive study of health IT risk (36 hospitals/9 weeks/volunteer reporting/171 health IT-related problems/8 incidents of harm/3 possible deaths):In 1970, health IT pioneer Dr. Octo Barnett at Harvard/MGH wrote his "Health IT Ten Commandments" (from Collen's "A history of Medical Informatics in the United States, 1950-1990"): 1. Thou shall know what you want to do2. Thou shall construct modular systems - given chaotic nature of hospitals3. Thou shall build a computer system that can evolve in a graceful fashion4. Thou shall build a system that allows easy and rapid programming development and modification5. Thou shall build a system that has consistently rapid response time and is easy for the non-computernik to use6. Thou shall have duplicate hardware systems7. Thou shall build and implement your system in a joint effort with real users in a real situation with real problems8. Thou shall be concerned with realities of the cost and projected benefit of the computer system9. Innovation in computer technology is not enough; there must be a commitment to the potentials of radical change in other aspects of healthcare delivery, particularly those having to do with organization and manpower utilization10. Be optimistic about the future, supportive of good work that is being done, passionate in your commitment, but always guided by a fundamental skepticism.Four decades later, I write th...
Source: Health Care Renewal - Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Tags: healthcare IT difficulties Octo Barnett Source Type: blogs